Slush pump seal ring



May 5, 1953 w. Pig-Lon JR 2,637,606

- ausa Pun? RING filed April 21. 1951 Will/(7m f. P/e/op,-L /1:

" INVENTOR.

- A TTORNEV Patented May 5, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT orrics SLUSH PUMPSEAL RING William E. Pielop, J r., Houston, Tex.

Application April 21, 1951, Serial No. 222,225

4 Claims.

. 1 This invention relates to a seal ring for use in pumps such as slushpumps. Slush pumps are used generally for the pumping; of. drilling mudin the rotary method of drilling wells and in the past considerabledifficulty has been experienced with the seal ringson these slush pumpswhen pumping viscous and abrasive mud wherein pressures of 2,000, 3,000and 4,000 pounds per square inch and even greater pressures may bemaintained.

Under such high pumping pressures,,it has been found that one of themost critical. causesof failure in pumping mud with slush pumps has beenin the construction of the slush pump seal rings. Tearing and splittingof the seal ring body as well as loss of. pressure in the pump due toexcessive peripheral wear on the seal ring are among the many and variedproblems by those in the field.

Itis therefore. one of the objects of this inv.vention to provide a.slush pump seal ring which has reduced. tendencies to tear and split onthe seal ring body and. to wear on the peripheral surface thereof duringpumping of drilling mud. Another object. of this invention is to providea seal ring of resilient material and a reinforcing dish entirelyenclosed within the resilient mate.-

rial.

.. A. furtherobiect of this inventionis to provide a. seal ring, whichhas a. resilient cylindrical body with a flared lip for engaging a pumpcylinder and a. reinforcing dish entirely within the body and. below theflared lip so that rigidity will be provided for the base whileretaining the resilient peripheral flare wear surface of the flared lip.An additional, object of this invention is to provide a slush pump.seal: ring wherein a circular reinforcing dish is utilized,.which. dishhas .a plurality of studs thereon and a plurality of Other and furtherobjects of this invention willbe readily apparent when the followingdescription is. considered in connectionwith accompanying, drawingswherein:-

Fig. 1 is a top. view of the reinforcing. dish illustrating.thealternate relationship of the studs and holes.

'a central opening it.

satisfactory in service.

f some extent.

2, Fig. 2 is a section of the reinforcing dish on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section of the complete seal ring showing the reinforcingdish on the same section as that shown in Fig. 2.

Referring now to the details of the drawings wherein like referencenumerals indicate like parts in all figures, Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show thereinforcing dish [0 Which is circular in shape and is formed by a skirtI and flat bottom 12. A curved section it is located between the flatbottom I2 and skirt II to form the complete integral reinforcing dishl0. Within said flat bottom is Positioned on the flat bottom l2 adjacentcentral opening [6 are three reinforcing studs 17. These studs I! may bemade integral with the reinforcing dish 10 or may be welded or otherwisefixed to dish I0; however, it is preferable to form the reinforcing dish50 by forging it from metal and therefore welding of the studs [1 to thedish l0 after the forging operation has been found to be the most Itshould be pointed out that metal is the most desirable material for thereinforcing dish [0 and studs l'l; however, it can readily beappreciated that other materials such as synthetic plastics may be usedif sufficientstrength can be obtained for use as a reinforcing member ofthe dish l0.

As can be seen in Fig. 1, the studs ll are flush with the inner edge H}of the flat bottom !2;

thus, as best shown in Figs. 2 and 3 the crossvsectional area of thereinforcing dish [0 and any one of the studs I! together form a U-shapedsection.

Equally spaced between the three studs H are three openings or holes 20.These openings ,20 are alternately spaced in relationship to studs Thepurpose of these holes 2B is to provide an area for the resilientmaterial of the cylindrical body 30 to pass through in order to lock thereinforcing dish Hi to the cylindrical body 30". I It can be readilyappreciated that by having rubber or other resilient material in holes2!} that z the integralness of the dish 90 and resilient body 30 will begreatly improved. Also, the tendency of. the dish I!) to rotate or slidewithin the body 30' is prevented. Of course, the studs ll also serve toprevent rotation or sliding of dish It to It is to be understood thatthis invention is not limited to the use of three studs l1. and threeholes 20, but it is preferable to have a plurality of the holes. 20 andthe studs IT.

The resilient cylindrical body 30 may be made of rubber, synthetic ornatural, or any other synthetic materials, but for most purposes naturalrubber has been found superior in performance. Resilient cylindricalbody 30 is an integral body having the reinforcing dish l moldedtherein. The reinforcing dish I 0 is located entirely within thecylindrical body and more particularly, this reinforcing dish I!) islocated in the annular resilient base 22. This base 22 is substantiallyrectangular in cross-sectional area. Inwardly of the base 22 is acentral opening 23 in the cylindrical body 30. The piston flange side 24of the base 22 is substantially flat. On the opposite side of the base22 from the flange side 24 is an outwardly flared lip 28 which is oflarger outside diameter than the outside diameter of the base 22 and ofconsiderably larger inside diameter than the inside diameter of the base22; thus, flared lip opening 31 is of greater diameter than the diameterof the central opening 23.

When the slush pump seal ring of this invention is in its normal use, itis fitted on a piston shaft. not shown, which passes through the opening23. A piston flange, not shown, on the iston shaft abuts the flange side24 of the seal ring body 30. To prevent the seal ring from slipping offthe piston shaft in use, a retainer plate fits against an inner shoulderor retainer plate shelf 35. The inner shoulder 35 is substantiallyparallel to flange side 24 of base 22 and is positioned at the junction36 of lip 28 and base 22. Shoulder 35 merges with the inner inclinedsurface 38 of flared lip 28 and the inclined surface 28 in turn mergeswith the inner beveled surface 4|. Details of a pump shaft and flangewhich may be used can be found in my co endin ap lication 56.835, filedOctober 27, 1948 now Patent No.

From Fig. 3, it can be seen that skirt H of the reinforcing dish Illextends adjacent to the junction 38 of lip 28 and base 22. The skirt IIalso runs substantially rarallel to the annular reriphera]. surface 42of the seal ring body 30. The annular peripheral surface 42 of seal ringbody 30 is formed by the merger of the annu ar peripheral surfa e 43 ofbase 22 and the annular peripheral surface 45 of flared li 28. Theannular peripheral surface 45 of lip 28 forms an outwardly sloping an lefrom the annular eripheral surface 43 so as to obtain the flared efl'ectnecessary to provide positive sealing by lip 28 with the inside of a pmp cylin er. not shown. The studs I! are generally slightly shorter thanthe upper edge of skirt II, but this invention is not so limited; it isdesirable to have the up er part of skirt I l substantially the sameheight as the studs ll. Thus. rigidity and intecra ne s can be obtainedin the base 22 while maintaining flexibility of the flared. lip 28 whichserves to increase the wear life of the seal rin of this invention.

The st ds l1 preferably fit just below inner shoulder 35 so that thereis a narrow section 5| of rubber just above studs l7. On the innersurface of studs I1 is a narrow section 52 of rubber. It can thus beseen that reinforcing dish is entirely within resilient body 30 but issuflicient y close to the piston flange side 24, inner sho lder 35 andinner peripheral surface 55 so that a cushioned rigidity is obtained bythe seal ring when it is positioned on a piston shaft and flange.Heretofore, these desirable properties and characteristics have beenunobtainable; this new combination of structural features results in acooperation which has given increased wear life and outstandingperformance in the field, particularly in connection with slush pumps.

Broadly, this invention contemplates a flared lip seal ring with areinforcing dish integrally secured entirely within the seal ring body.

What is claimed is:

l. A seal ring for slush pump pistons comprising, a cylindricalresilient body, a central opening in said body, said body comprising anannular resilient base and an annular resilient lip thereon, an internalshoulder formed at the junction of said base and said lip to provide asurface for receiving a retainer plate, annular peripheral surfaces oneach of said base and said lip which surfaces merge into a unitaryperipheral surface, an outwardly flared portion at the upper end of saidlip so that the inherent resiliency of the ring material maintains saidlip flared into contact with a pump piston cylinder, a reinforcing dishembedded entirely within the resilient material composing said ringcomprisin a metal forging having a generally tubular skirt concentricwith the outer periphery of said ring and having a flat bottom, saidskirt extending substantially parallel to said annular peripheralsurface to rigidify said peripheral surface and extending upwardly fromsaid bottom to a level adiacent said junction so that the resiliency ofsaid flared lip is maintained, a plurality of angularly spaced studsprojecting upwardly from said bottom, the cross-sectional area of saidstuds and said reinforcing dish together forming a U-shaped area.

2. A seal ring for slush pump pistons comprising, a cylindricalresilient body, a central opening in said body, said body comprising anannular resilient base having a substantially flat inner end andprovided with an annular resilient lip at its outer end, an internalshoulder formed at the junction of said base and said lip to provide asurface for receiving a retainer plate, annular peripheral surfaces oneach of said base and said lip which surfaces merge into a unitaryperipheral surface, a flared portion at the upper end of said lip sothat the inherent resiliency of the ring material maintains said lipflared into contact with a pump piston cylinder, a reinforcing dishembedded entirely within the resilient material composing said ringcomprising a metal forging having a generally tubular skirt concentriowith the outer periphery of said ring-and having a flat bottom, disposedsubstantially parallel with said inner end of the base said skirtextending substantially parallel to said annular peripheral surface torigidify said peripheral surface and extending upwardly from said bottomto a level ad acent said .iunction so that the resiliency of said flaredlip is maintained, a plurality of angularly spaced studs projectingupwardly from said bottom, the cross-sectional area of said studs andsaid reinforcing dish together forming a U-shaped area, said studsextending ad acent and below said internal shoulder,.spaced o enings insaid dish intermediate said studs, and resilient material of said bodymolded through said spaced openings to improve the integralness of saidbody and said reinforcing dish.

3. A reinforcing dish for a slush pump seal ring comprising acylindrical metal body composed of a. generally tubular skirt and a flatbottom integral therewith, a central opening in said bottom, a pluralityof angularly spaced studs connected with said bottom adjacent saidcentral opening, and extending upwardly therefrom generally parallel tosaid skirt and to a height substantially level with the upper end ofsaid skirt and a plurality of holes in said dish.

' 4. A seal ring for slush pump pistons compris- 5 ing, a cylindricalresilient body, a central opening in said body, said body comprising anannular resilient base having a substantially flat inner end andprovided with an annular resilient lip about its outer end, and internalshoulder formed at the junction of said base and said lip to provide asurface for receiving a retainer plate, annular peripheral surfaces oneach of said base and said lip which surfaces merge into a unitaryperipheral surface, a reinforcing dish embedded entirely Within theresilient material composing said ring comprising a rigid body having agenerally tubular skirt to face outwardly in said ring and having a flatbottom disposed parallel to said flat inner end of said base, said skirtextending substantially parallel to said annular peripheral surface torigidify said peripheral sur- WILLIAM E. PIELOP, JR.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,596,353 Hartman Aug. 17, 1926 1,833,920 Steirly Dec. 1, 19311,849,096 Kibele Mar. 15, 1932 2,283,460 Pumphrey May 19, 1942

